


softly blurred

by demistories



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: 5+1 Things, Developing Relationship, F/M, Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 19:12:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10394169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demistories/pseuds/demistories
Summary: the five times she got caught in the rainand the one time he did





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Amaranthis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amaranthis/gifts).



> for the ml spring exchange!!!! 
> 
> ~technically~ the prompt was any side of the love square and the rain, but i went with all sides because i really love the 5+1 things trope!
> 
> also someone please get me to stop procrastinating oh my god i regret a lot 
> 
> enjoy!

_I love the rain._  
I love how it softens the outlines of things.  
The world becomes softly blurred,  
and I feel like I melt right into it.

_-Hanamoto Hagumi_

* * *

**i. summer - l’été**

 

The thick humidity breaks as thunder claps. Gray clouds hide the sun and Marinette stares at the drizzle with a sinking heart, thinking of the walk home in the downpour. Her maman has always told her to always have an umbrella on her. Better to be over prepared than caught in a storm.

Marinette has never been all that good at listening to other people’s advice.

She tenses as she sees Adrien walk up next to her and open his umbrella. Her mind is looping ‘not now not now not now not now’ over and over again. She doesn’t know if she can have this discussion right now. Or any interaction right now? It’s raining and she’s exhausted from the earlier attack. She can’t deal with this right now.

“Hey!” Adrien says, raising a hand.

Marinette looks away. _Not now_.

“I just wanted to let you know—” She glances toward him in surprise. She didn’t think he’d say anything if she ignored him. “—that I was only trying to take the chewing gum off your seat. I swear.”

Marinette runs his words over in her mind as he turns his back to her. Could that really be what had happened? She hadn’t exactly asked him what he was doing so much as she had just jumped to conclusions and accused him. But he was friends with Chloé and—

“I’ve never been to school before,” Adrien admits. “I’ve never…had friends.” He forces a laugh. “It’s all sort of new to me.” He glances over his shoulder at her.

She’d think that he was blaming her for that, or angry at her for reacting the way she did, but he just looks…sad.

He sighs, the corner of his lips lifting in a small half smile, before turning toward and holding his umbrella out to her.  

Marinette stares at him— no not him, the umbrella between them. Because she’s not thinking about what a gorgeous shade of green his eyes are.

Thunder rumbles and drags her away from his sparkling eyes to remind her that not only is he standing in the pouring rain _offering her his umbrella_ , but she’s also been staring at him for longer than she probably should.

Marinette hesitates before taking the umbrella from his outstretched arm and holds it over her head. And then she stares at him again, because she doesn’t know how to thank him and apologize at the same time. She can’t seem to form any words that string together to make a coherent and meaningful thought.

Not that she has to, because the umbrella snaps shut around her.

If she could sink into the ground and stop existing right now, she probably wouldn’t mind.

But then Adrien laughs. And it sounds like happiness and _sunshine_.

Marinette lifts the umbrella, peaking out at him. She hadn’t seen him smile like that today. His smile, his happiness, it’s infectious and has her giggling with him. What she wouldn’t give to make him light up like that all of the time.

Adrien takes a deep breath and smiles at her again. “See you tomorrow,” he says as he walks towards the waiting car.

Marinette stares at his back, only remembering to respond when she drops her bag on the ground. “Uh huh! See you to-mor— tomorr— Whoa, why I am I stammering?” she asks herself more than anyone else.

Tikki laughs and zips out of her bag. “I think I might have an idea!” she says, nuzzling Marinette’s cheek.

Marinette turns pink. It’s not that. It’s definitely not that.

Three hours later, Marinette is laying on her chaise, staring at Adrien’s umbrella. She’s leant it against a corner in her room and is trying to figure out how to return it. What to say, how to say it, how she should act, what to wear— 

Marinette groans and rolls over to bury her face in a pillow.

Tikki is right.

It is _definitely_ that.

—«·»—

**ii. autumn - l’automne**

 

Marinette sighs as the first bitter cold drops of rain hit the sidewalk. She glances around the quickly darkening streets, trying to come up with the best plan of action. She’d been looking for new fabrics for a skirt and had wandered a little further from home than she originally intended. If she can find a secluded area, she might be able to transform, and then she can get home quickly. Or she could hide away in a random store and hope they don’t kick her out before the rain clears. _If_ the rain clears quickly.

She really needs to start checking the weather before she leaves the house.

Marinette finds herself thinking about Adrien’s black umbrella, sitting in the corner of her room, untouched since the first day she put it there.

It’s really unfortunate that of all days, today seems to be the day that Marinette has decided to think through all of her actions. She finds herself staring up at an angry dark sky as rain falls in heavy buckets, drenching her through and chilling her to the bones.

She groans and shoves her sopping bangs out of her eyes. This may end with her bedridden for the rest of the week.

“Hey!” a voice above her shouts.

Marinette automatically assumes a defensive position as her eyes dart upward.

Chat blinks at her in surprise, his eyes glowing in the dim light as he takes in her raised fists, before a smiles slowly spreads across his face. She crosses her arms over her chest as she watches him hold back laughter.

“What do you want, Chat Noir?” she snaps. She’s cold, she’s wet, she’s not in the mood. She loves her partner to death and would go to the ends of the earth for him, but she doesn’t feel like joking around right now. She wants to get out of these clothes, wrap up in a soft blanket, and drink hot chocolate.

“Did I scare you?” he asks with a smirk.

Marinette scoffs. “Surprised me, maybe. You’re as scary as a kitten.”

“Terrifying,” he purrs. He leaps down from the ledge he’d been perched on, landing gracefully on his feet and pulling his staff out from behind his back. “What are you doing on this side of town in the pouring rain?”

She sighs and sinks in on herself a little. The cold rain is starting to make her shiver, as if the decreasing temperature and gusty winds weren’t already bad enough. “Just trying to get home,” she murmurs.

Chat frowns and glances down the street.

Marinette follows his gaze. “Is…that the way toward my house?” she asks hesitantly.

He raises his eyebrows at her. “You don’t know how to get back?” He sounds surprised. Which…she can’t blame him for. She _should_ know how to get back. She’s wandered all over the city, with her friends and by herself. Not to mention that she’s _Ladybug_ and spends almost all her free time _flying above the city_. She really should know Paris like the back of her hand, but here she is.

She coughs awkwardly and looks away. “I _may_ have gotten turned around a little. _Maybe_.”

Chat snickers. “Okay, princess. Luckily for you,” he flexes an arm, “your knight has come to your rescue again.”

Marinette rolls her eyes. “How long are you going to use that one for?” she mutters.

“It’s one of my best,” he says proudly.

“Alright, knight in rusting armour—” Chat opens his mouth to protest, but then he makes a face and nods. “—lead the way.”

Chat snorts. “No way, you’ll die of a cold that way.”

She narrows her eyes at him. “I’m sorry, are we living in the Victorian era? A little rain isn’t going to kill anyone.”

“Might put you out of commission for a week or so though,” he counters.

“Do you have a better option?” she asks.

Chat wraps an arm around her waist. “Hold on tight, Mar,” he says, extending the staff and lifting them up in the air.

Marinette gasps as her feet leave the ground and grabs onto him tightly. She is really not the biggest fan of hanging in the air when she’s not Ladybug. _Especially_ when she doesn’t have the adrenaline rush of an akuma attack.

She squeezes her eyes shut and tries not to think about anything other than the fact that she’s way higher up off the ground than she wants to be. She trusts Chat with her life, but this is terrifying.

She opens one eye when Chat lands solidly on the roof.

“Good?” he asks her with a half smile.

She nods wordlessly.

“Then we’re off!”

He breaks into a sprint, catching her completely off guard. Marinette shrieks and squeezes Chat so hard that she’s honestly surprised that he can _breathe_ let alone _laugh at her_. “Shut up!” she hisses.

Chat doesn’t say anything, he just laughs again and leaps across a gap to the next rooftop.

She can’t tell if he’s running faster than usual or if her perception of speed is seriously messed up when she’s transformed. There’s something kind of thrilling about this, but it’s definitely buried deep below a lot of pure fear.  

Marinette only opens her eyes to check their surroundings when Chat stops. Being so still seems _wrong_ , her skin feels tight and prickly from the cold rain and harsh wind and she’s incredibly breathless for someone who was literally just dragged along for the ride.

“Oh my god,” she breathes, her voice hitching.

Chat carefully lowers her onto her balcony, holding her arm to keep her steady as her feet land on finally solid ground. Her legs feel like jello, like she just got off a boat after weeks at sea.

“Are you okay?” he asks, with a twinkle in his eyes. She thinks that he enjoys this far too much, but it makes her heart flutter to see him smile like that.

All her snarky responses were left behind her on a different rooftop. Instead, Marinette nods. “Thanks. You didn’t have to.”

Chat tilts his head and grins widely. “It’s my duty, princess, to protect the people of Paris.”

Marinette rolls her eyes. It’s easier to talk now that her heart rate has leveled out a bit and there’s no longer wind roaring in her ears. “A bit of rain never hurt anyone.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Chat counters. His expression is light but his words are serious and she knows he’s right. She’s always known that he has a protective streak, but he hardly knows her — Marinette, the civilian — and they aren’t living in the eighteen hundreds. This isn’t a Jane Austen novel, no one will be bedridden by some cold water.

“Next time I’ll bring an umbrella,” she promises. She might have to go out and buy one. She doesn’t know how she feels about using Adrien’s.

Chat squeezes her arm once before letting go and hopping up on her balcony railing. He crouches down so they’re face to face and smiles. “Thanks, princess. Stay warm and drink tea for me, okay?” He leans forward and presses a kiss to her forehead before he leaps away from her balcony and launches himself over the next rooftop.

The rain soaks Marinette to the core as she stares after him, frozen not just because of the cold.

Warmth. Tea.

Right.

She blinks a few times, raindrops dripping from her eyelashes, and swallows hard before she turns around and pulls open the hatch into her room.

Get warm and get tea. Simple enough. She can do that for him.  

—«·»—

**iii. winter - l’hiver**

 

Ladybug is starting to think that she needs to be more careful about her spontaneous patrols. And by more careful, she means that she needs to start checking the weather more often.

Right now, Marinette is supposed to be curled up with her physics book and review packet, studying for the exam they have coming up. Instead, she decided she needed a breath of fresh air after about twenty five minutes of staring at the same page. Besides, maybe Ladybug was needed somewhere.

At least, that’s what she told herself.

Ladybug had gotten a little distracted with some kids in the park playing in the snow. Yes, she’s a hero of Paris that protects the civilians from akumas and Hawk Moth, but she’s also a hero of Paris that has time to interact with those she cares for. If she doesn’t have time she _makes it_. (If it comes out of her study time, no one needs to know.)

She hadn’t accounted for sleet.

The problem now is that _Marinette_ has already taken a shower and gotten ready for bed. She’d done it as soon as she got home from school, so she’d be able to fall asleep on her textbook and not have to worry about being gross in the morning. But now Ladybug is half frozen. And she knows from experience that if her hair is wet while she’s transformed, it will be just as wet when she detransforms.

This is unfortunate.

She probably doesn’t need to be completely dry when she gets back home, but she’d like to be significantly less frozen and icy. It’ll be suspicious if she starts hauling towels up to her room.

Ladybug sighs and leans against the building that she’d randomly swung up to. The weather and dark sky is making it difficult for her to orient herself in the city. The sleet is heavy and thick— it’s probably safer for her to stay in one place and plan out what she’s going to do than to keep moving around. Her suit will (mostly) keep her from freezing but…

She needs to start thinking this stuff through.

Or find a way to bring an umbrella on patrol.

She still has Adrien’s umbrella. It ****’s sitting in the corner of her room, sometimes haunting her with sounds of thunder and his ringing laughter. She could return it, but now she ****’s trying to think of ways to carry it around with her as Ladybug.

Ladybug squeaks and nearly falls off the ledge she’s standing on as a window next to her swings open. She hadn’t even realized that was _there_.  

Adrien leans out of the window, staring at her with wide eyes. “ _Ladybug_?!”

She stares at him. This is the _Agreste house_? How hadn’t she noticed that? “Uh…”

He squints at her through the icy rain. “Is…everything okay?”

“Fine fine! Everything is good!” She pushes back her bangs to get them out of her eyes and she can already anticipate them freezing there.

“Are you sure?” Adrien asks, giving her a concerned look. “You’ve been standing there for…a while now.” There’s something in the pause that tells Ladybug that he knows almost exactly how long she’s been there, he just doesn’t want her to know that. She realizes now that the ‘wall’ she’d been leaning against was actually another one of Adrien’s windows.

Whoops.

“It’s cold?” she says weakly.

He glances at the sky before looking back to her. “Y-yes? It is? Did you…need something?”

“I’m just trying to figure out how I’m going to get home,” she says awkwardly. “I’m kind of…wet.”  

She can practically see the gears turning in his mind. “I…” he hesitates and leans back inside his room for a moment before he continues. “You could dry off here? I don’t mind.”

Ladybug feels her heart in her throat as she nods. “Th-that’d be really nice, thanks.”

“Okay, so yeah, just…come on in.” Adrien steps away from the open window and Ladybug inches toward it, careful of the icy window sills.

As soon as she’s in his room, Adrien closes the window and locks it. Ladybug glances down at the floor that she’s dripping all over. Hopefully she’s not ruining anything.

“Here, let me grab you some towels,” he says. “So you can dry off. And as soon as you’re warm you can make your way home.” He disappears into his bathroom — which she _knows_ is his bathroom because she walked in on him _showering_ and if that’s not the most embarrassing thing she’s done yet — and Ladybug rocks back and forth on her heels as she waits.

She looks around his room, strangely familiar with it at this point. She’s been in here more often than she expected to be when he first gave her his umbrella. Even if she only counts the times she was here as Marinette, they far outnumber what she’d imagined. She’s not exactly sure when her and Adrien became friends, but somewhere along the way, they did.

She recognizes the familiar homework stack on his desk, the way his jacket is slung over the arm of the couch, the abandoned notebooks on the floor where he liked to lay when he was brainstorming…

Ladybug is shocked out her thoughts when her earrings beep loudly.

 _Uh oh_.

“Five minutes,” she whispers to herself. “Five…” She _definitely_ can’t dry off and get back home in that amount of time. She’s pretty sure her head is an icicle.

Adrien walks out of his bathroom with a few towels under his arm while he dries off his own hair with another towel. “Did I hear something?” he asks. “Like a beeping?”

Ladybug chews on her lip as she takes the towels from him. “Thanks. I uh…” She reaches up and taps her earrings. “They time out. I have five minutes before my transformation ends.”

Adrien blinks. “That’s not good.”

“Yeah…not really the best.”

Ladybug starts to dry her hair as Adrien looks around his room. His eyes go wide and sparkle like they do whenever he figures out a particularly hard problem, and it makes her heart flip. She focuses on getting the ice out of her pigtails.

“Here,” Adrien says, walking over to his bed. He pulls a blanket out from under it. “I don’t really know how your transformation works, but this way I won’t see your face and you’ll get warmer at the same time.”

She smiles gratefully as she takes the blanket from him. “ _Thank you_.”

Adrien shrugs. “It’s the least I can do for one of Paris’ heroes.”

Ladybug pulls a towel over her head as she turns pink, drying her hair to hide her blush. “You really didn’t have to,” she murmurs.

“Of course I did,” he insists and the sincerity in his voice makes her feel like she’s feather light. “You can sit on the couch, if you want.”

She lifts the towel to see him sitting on the floor with his back against the couch, notebook in hand. She winces as her earrings beep again. Her hair is still wet, but it’s no longer icy and dripping and for now that’s enough.

Ladybug makes herself comfortable on the couch and cocoons herself in the blanket, embracing the softness and warmth. She needed this more than she had realized. “Tikki,” she whispers, because there’s no point in staying transformed under here, “spots off.”

She closes her eyes at the flash of pink light and shushes Tikki softly as she feels the kwami land in her open hands.

“Can I get you anything?” Adrien asks. “Or is there anything I can do to help?”

Tikki muffles a giggle.

“Um, if you have any sweets, that’d be nice,” Marinette says quickly. It probably sounds like a strange request but at least he won’t judge her to her face.  

“Sure, give me a minute.” She hears him get up and move around the room. “I’m gonna leave,” he says, “but no one will come in until I come back so… Yeah.”

“Okay,” she says softly.

The door opens and closes, and she’s alone with Tikki.

Tikki tsks at her. “ _Marinette_.”

Marinette sags against the back of the couch. “I know I know!”

“You said just a quick patrol!”

“I did,” Marinette murmurs. “Sorry, Tikki.”

Tikki sighs before nuzzling Marinette’s cheek. “It’s fine, we just have to be more careful about these things.”

“And check the weather.”

“That too.”  

“Sorry for taking so long,” Adrien says a few minutes later as the door swings open. “Nathalie stopped me.” Marinette tenses as something touches the blanket by her leg. “It’s just a plate with some cookies on it. Does that work?”

“It’s perfect,” she promises and pulls the cookies under the blanket. Tikki moves from where she’s been resting on Marinette’s shoulder to sit on the plate.

“So um, it’s kind of boring under there, right?” Adrien asks.

Marinette smiles to herself. “I’m fine,” she says. “I won’t be invading your room for too much longer.”

“I really don’t mind.” Adrien’s voice moves as he wanders around the room. “I was just going to ask if you mind that I read out loud. It’s just something I do sometimes.”

“I don’t mind.” Marinette does mind, she minds a lot, because this is much more involved than she intended to get with Adrien today and she’s not sure if her heart can handle it. She does mind, but she has no intention of moving from this spot until she absolutely has to.

Marinette has no idea what Adrien’s reading from, she just knows that his voice is soothing and wraps her up like the blanket he’d given her. She finds herself sinking into the story, even if it’s not really processing, soaking up every word she can.

She finds herself drifting off. Her responsibilities are miles away, she’s happy exactly where she is.

Marinette has no idea how much time has past when Tikki nudges her lightly. Marinette stifles a yawn and rubs her eyes, blinking in the darkness of the blanket. Adrien is still reading, his voice a gentle background noise.

She sighs. She’s been here long enough. Physics is waiting.

The next time Adrien pauses for more than a few seconds, she clears her throat loudly.

“Yeah?” he asks. “Oh! Are you okay to leave now?”

“Mhm.” Marinette whispers for Tikki to transform her and waits for the pink light to fade before she pokes her head out of the blanket. “Thank you so much.”

Adrien looks up to her from where he sits on the floor with a bright smile. “Yeah, of course.” His eyes go wide. “Wait one second.” He scrambles to his feet and goes to his closet, digging through designer clothes Marinette could only dream of designing. When he turns back around, he’s holding a red rain jacket. “Here.”

Ladybug starts to protest because she really shouldn’t.

“I insist,” Adrien says. “I’m not going to wear it, I have plenty of jackets and my father keeps giving me more. Plus, it matches your color scheme.” He gives her a pleading look and she caves.

“I really can’t thank you enough,” Ladybug says as she pulls on the jacket and zips it up. She’s going to analyze it to pieces when she gets home. The stitching, the fabric, the lining— She just regrets that she’ll never be able to wear this as Marinette. It’s comfortable and warm without being too heavy. She could use a coat like this.

Adrien opens the the window as she examines the coat. “You don’t need to thank me, just keep doing what you do. That’s enough.”

Ladybug shakes her head. “Nonsense.” She kisses his cheek quickly before climbing up to the window. “I have a lot to thank you for.”

Lips burning from where they touched Adrien’s cheek, she pulls her hood up over her head and swings away.

When she gets home, she detransforms, hangs the jacket up in the back of her closet, and screams into a pillow.

—«·»—

**iv. spring - le printemps**

 

Ladybug scrunches her nose as a raindrop falls on it. She’s been thinking that the plants on her balcony could use some water — she waters them whenever they need it but it’s so much easier when it rains — but this is some inconvenient timing.

Her and Chat’s lives have gotten increasingly more busy and it’s been harder and harder to schedule patrols together. They take separate patrols all the time, mostly spontaneous ones whenever they need a break or have the urge to stretch their legs (she always checks the weather before hand now), but patrols are infinitely more entertaining when they’re together.

This was supposed to be their first patrol together in weeks.

She sighs and pulls out her yoyo, about to contact Chat and call it off, when the cat in question hops up onto the roof next to her.

“How do cats feel about rain?” she asks him as stows away his baton.

“I love it,” Chat admits. “Though the rooftops do not.”

Ladybug hums in agreement. They try to cancel whenever the weather gets particularly bad. It creates too many safety hazards, even with the magic suits. Roofs get slippery quickly, and after she got a particularly bad cold from staying out so long in the heavy sleet during the winter, they try to avoid being out for too long in poor weather.

Part of her still sort of wants to find a way to carry an umbrella with her as Ladybug. Specifically Adrien’s umbrella — which is still sitting in the corner of her room, untouched — but any umbrella would do.

“Do you want to go home?” Ladybug asks. “There’s no point in just sitting here in the rain.”

Chat smirks. “My Lady, I’ve always got a backup plan.”

She scoffs. “When do you ever have a _plan_?” she teases.

He sticks his tongue out at her. “Do you want to spend together or not.” He pouts. “Tell the poor cat if you’re kicking him to the curb.”

She rolls her eyes. “ _Fine_. Where are we going, kitty?”

He offers her his hand and very seriously says, “Do you trust me?”

Ladybug gives him a flat look. “Really?”

Chat laughs and pulls her closer, wrapping an arm around her waist. “Really, bugaboo. Let me get a bird’s eye view.” He unhooks his baton and raises them high above the rooftops. When they get to the top, Ladybug rests on his knee while he gets his bearings.

She doesn’t know how she feels about being so much closer to storm clouds, but it’s something else to see Paris in the rain. Something about the way some of the streets almost sparkle and people rush through the streets instead of walking leisurely.

“Got it!” Chat announces, leaning to the left, tipping the baton and them. As they lose their balance, Ladybug throws her yoyo. It catches on the nearest ledge and they swing upward. She follows his instructions as they swing through Paris. She has no real idea where they’re going, she just hopes they end up somewhere moderately dry.

She only flies them around for a few minutes before they return to the rooftops and run the rest of the way. Then, Chat flips off the side of a roof and rolls to a stand on a carless street. He motions for Ladybug to follow, which she does with what she hopes is the same amount of grace.

“A park?” she asks, raising an eyebrow. “You’re not serious.”

Chat shakes his head. “It’s not the _park_ we’re here for, it’s what’s _in_ the park.”

“Ohhhh of _course_.”

He rolls his eyes and grabs her hand. “Just follow me.”

Ladybug notices how he jumps a little when thunder cracks loudly.

Chat shows her to the back of the park, where there’s a small bridge over a small path. He pulls her under the bridge and gives her a look. “We’re out of the rain.”

Ladybug laughs. “You aren’t wrong. We _are_ out of the rain. But why’d we have to almost leave Paris to get out of it?”

A strange look crosses Chat’s face as he presses a gloved hand to the side of the bridge. “My mom loved this park,” he says after a moment. “It was the first place I thought of,” he admits. He shoots Ladybug a lopsided smile. “We could’ve probably gone anywhere, but my mom liked being under here when it rained.”

Ladybug isn’t sure what she had expected for an answer, but it wasn’t that. “Can I ask why?” she asks softly. Chat never talks about his family. To be fair, she usually doesn’t either, they try to avoid anything personal like that, but sometimes she lets things slip. But Chat never does.

Chat shrugs. “I think she liked it because it’s almost like you aren’t in the city anymore. And it’s just you, whoever you’re with, and the sound of rain.”

They stay silent for a long moment to listen to the rain hit the ground and bridge above them.

He closes his eyes as lightning flashes and keeps them closed until thunder rumbles off in the distance. “I think we’re going to be stuck here for a while if you don’t want to get drenched,” he murmurs.

“I don’t mind,” Ladybug insists. She sits down and pats the ground in front of her.

Chat glances up and studies the underside of the bridge for a moment before joining her on the ground. “What do you want to do?” he asks.

Ladybug shrugs. “We never just hang out together. Maybe that’s what we’ll do.”

He wiggles his eyebrows. “Twenty questions?”

She taps a finger against her lips. “Favorite movie?”

“Howl’s Moving Castle,” he answers immediately. “Favorite flavor of hot chocolate?”

“Oddly specific, but mint hot chocolate.” She puffs out her cheeks. She can’t already be running out of things she wants to know about Chat. Well, that’s not true. She wants to know a lot about him, but there’s these annoying little things called their secret identities that are getting in the way. Most of her questions are far too personal. Not _that_ personal, but personal enough that she’ll never actually ask them. “We have to refight an akuma, which one do you choose?”

Chat raises his eyebrows. “Wow, okay. Probably…” He rests his chin in a hand. “Talk about springing one on me, LB. None of them were particularly _easy_ —”

Ladybug snorts. “You’re not _wrong_ ,” she says when he gives her a look. “It’s just funny to watch you try and logic your way through this.”

“Oh well then.” Chat crosses his arms. “Who would you choose.”

She points a finger at him. “Twenty questions. You have to answer, not me.”

He groans. “Okay, fine! Let’s go with, uh, I don’t know? The Magician of Misfortune?”

Ladybug nods slowly. “Okay.”

Chat narrows his eyes at her. “You know how ominous that is, right?”

She just smiles. “Your turn to ask a question.”

“Are you evil?”

Ladybug sticks her tongue out at him. “Way to waste a question, fluffy butt. And _no_.”

Chat shrugs. “Worth it.”

She hums as she tries to think of another question, her eyes flicking to Chat ask lightning flashes and thunder cracks in quicker succession than before. He tenses a little, but looks significantly calmer. “Here’s an easy one.”

“Hit me with it.”

“Deep sea exploration or deep space?”

Chat tilts his head and gives her a weird look. “That’s such a random question?”

Ladybug shrugs a shoulder. “Maybe, but I asked it anyway.”

“Deep space,” he says after a slight pause.

“Possibility of mermaids,” Ladybug counters.

“Um, aliens.”

“The truth is out there?” she asks in a low voice.

“Exactly,” Chat says seriously.

Ladybug doesn’t know how many questions they actually ask. It’s probably more than twenty, though at some point they stop playing by actual rules to debate answers and offer opinions. At some point, the thunder stops, though the rain continues, and they find themselves on their backs and staring at the underside of the bridge.

Chat is retelling her a story he read online the other day, gesturing wildly as he does so. Ladybug turns her head to watch him with a fond smile.

The rain is starting to slow now, but she’d let the world be blanketed in it forever if it meant she got to stay here with him.

—«·»—

**v. spring - le printemps**

 

Marinette freezes in her tracks as she feels a raindrop hit the top of her head. She takes a slow breath and closes her eyes.

It’s fine. It’s not like she’s on the outskirts of the city with a bag full of expensive fabrics. A non waterproof bag.

Add that to the list of things she really needs to get.

“I should’ve brought Adrien’s umbrella,” she murmurs to herself. She’s had it for over a year now, possibly closer to two? She keeps meaning to give it back but she keeps forgetting and coming up with new reasons not to.

Marinette is looking around, trying to find somewhere to take shelter from the rain, when a familiar voice calls out her name.

She spins around to see Adrien walking up to her, the hood of his jacket up over his head.

“Adrien! Pretty far from home, aren’t you?” she asks. Maybe if she had worn a coat she would be able to cover her bag with it…

He shrugs. “I went for a walk. I got _lost_ ,” he says with with a wink.

Marinette snorts. “Right of course. I’ll be sure to tell Nathalie exactly how ‘lost’ you are.”

“Why are you out here?” he asks. “In the rain, no less.”

“I was out running errands,” she lifts the bag, “but the rain is a problem. These fabrics are _not_ made for the rain. I was looking for somewhere to wait out the rain but,” they glance around the street, “we seem to be in a residential area and I don’t know where I’m going.”

Adrien furrows his eyebrows as he looks around. “I…actually do,” he says, sounding just as surprised as Marinette is.

“You do?”

“Yeah, I do.” He holds his hand out to Marinette and wiggles his fingers. “Come on, let’s go before your fabrics get ruined.”

She follows after him, taking a few quick steps so they’re walking next to each other. “Are you sure about this?”

“Do you not trust me?” he asks with a crooked smile. “Don’t worry, I think this is supposed to be a quick storm. We can wait it out together.”

Marinette’s heart swells. She always thinks she’s gotten over the worst part of her crush until Adrien smiles at her like that. “Sounds good,” she agrees.

Adrien moves them a few streets over, and he’s right, he seems to know exactly where he’s going. They wait for a car to pass by before crossing a street to a small park.

Marinette raises an eyebrow. “A park?”

“It’s _inside_ the park, Mari,” he promises. As he tugs her along, Marinette slowly begins to recognize where they are.

“I think I’ve been here before,” she whispers.

“Have you?” Adrien asks, glancing back at her. “Most people who don’t live around here have no idea it’s here.”

When she sees the bridge it all clicks into place.

She takes a moment to stare at it before following Adrien underneath, setting her bag of fabrics carefully on the ground.

Adrien presses his hand to the side of the bridge and smiles at it wistfully.

There’s no way, right?

“How did you find this place, anyway?” Marinette asks. Casually. Despite the fact that her heart is racing and her entire world is starting to shift.

She compares the way they stand, the way their hair falls. Their mannerisms, their gestures, their slang. The jokes they make, the lilts in their voice, random things they’ve told her over what’s been almost two years.

He can’t have been this close the entire time.

“My mom loved this place,” he says with a soft smile. “She always liked being under this bridge in the rain.”

Marinette’s breath catches in her throat.

“Something about…being almost out of the city,” Adrien murmurs.  

It’s like she’s seeing a ghost from a year ago standing right next to him.

“It’s just you, whoever you’re with, and the sounds of rain.”

When she takes a deep breath, it shakes. Everything has shifted over and now her world is starting to settle.

“Chat?” Marinette asks. Her voice cracks and she thinks she might start crying and she doesn’t know if that’s the right reaction to this but she also doesn’t know if she’s going to be able to stop her tears from flowing.

Adrien goes still. He stares at his hand on the bridge for a long moment before he turns his head to look at her, his eyes wide and scared.

Whatever this is, it’s silent and heavy and weighs down on Marinette like an anchor. She hates it and wants it gone.

She sits down and pats the ground next to her. Her eyes are watering and she can stop her breaths from coming fast, but she can try her best.

Adrien slowly lowers his hand from the bridge and sits down next to her.

She swallows hard. “Twenty questions?” she asks. She can almost hear the desperation in her voice. Because she wanted to be ready when this happened, she wanted to be in _control_ of when this happened, so she could be more in control of her reaction and Chat’s— Adrien’s. She wanted to be ready and she doesn’t know if she is. “We haven’t played in forever.”

Adrien forces a laugh. “It’s been a year, bug,” he says hoarsely.

Marinette twirls one of her earrings. “Um…favorite time of day?”

“Dusk.” He tugs on the grass in front of him. “Book or movie.”

“Movie, I usually don’t have time to read.” She watches him out of the corner of her eye. “We have to refight an akuma. Who do you choose?”

Adrien blinks. And then he buries his face in his hands and groans, but she can see him smiling beneath his hands. “I hate you so much.”

Marinette snorts. And then her nerves bubble up inside of her and she starts laughing and can’t stop. She falls against Adrien’s side as she tries to control her laughter, he hangs his head and his shoulders shake with quiet laughter.

When she meets his eyes again, they’re a little wet, but they’re sparkling. She smiles back at him and knows that they’ll be okay.

“So?” she asks. “What akuma would you choose?”

Adrien scoffs. “I am _not_ answering that question.”

**—«·»—  
**

**+i. spring - le printemps**

 

Marinette notices something, some _one_ , jumping rooftops when she looks out her window. She’s supposed to be doing homework, but she’s distracted. By a lot of things, actually, but now most of her attention is on her partner. She has no idea when he decided to take a patrol. Last they had talked, he’d been reviewing for a Chinese lesson. Maybe he had gotten restless.

She thinks back to what her maman had been saying earlier about rain and shakes her head. _She’s_ gotten better at checking the weather before going out, but she has no idea if Adrien ever checks.

As if the clouds weren’t telling enough.

Sure enough, the weather calls for rain. Knowing Chat and how long he tends to run patrols, he’ll definitely get caught in it.

“Tikki!” Marinette calls out, spinning away from her desk. “Are you up for a quick run?”

Tikki zips down from the loft. “How quick is quick?” she asks with a smile.

“Really quick, I _promise_.”

“I’m just teasing, Mari.” Tikki studies the weather report that’s still pulled up on Marinette’s computer. “But it’s going to rain?”

“Exactly. Chat’s already out there and I’m pretty sure he has no idea.”

Tikki hums knowingly. “Him and Plagg are both impulsive.” She giggles and pokes Marinette’s nose. “You are too though! Make sure you grab something to wear.”

Marinette stands up from her chair suddenly.

Hidden in the back of her closet still hangs Adrien’s red jacket. He’d said she could keep it, but she had never been able to wear it, so she’d almost forgotten about it.

“Tikki, spots on!”

Ladybug pulls on the jacket and zips it up. She’s halfway up the loft when Adrien’s umbrella catches her eye. She hesitates before she turns around and grabs it before she second guesses herself.

It’s already started to drizzle when she climbs up to her balcony. If the weather report is right, it’ll turn into a downpour soon enough.

It’s a little bit awkward to swing through Paris while holding an umbrella, but it doesn’t take Ladybug too long to get used to it. She follows some of Chat’s usual paths as she squints through the rain as it falls harder and harder.

She finds him sitting on a roof close to the Eiffel Tower.

Ladybug lands behind him silently, but is still genuinely surprised when Chat doesn’t turn around to see her. She holds the umbrella over his head with a smile.

Chat looks up in confusion when the rain suddenly stops. His confusion almost immediately melts into a soft smile. “Hey.”

“Someone didn’t check the weather,” she teases.

“One of my few faults.” Chat takes the umbrella from her and stands. He frowns at the umbrella and studies the handle. “Is this…?”

Ladybug bites her lip and looks at her feet. “I might’ve forgotten to give it back.” She tugs at the jacket. “Also this. I also forgot to give this back.”

“You can keep them,” Chat promises.

“But I haven’t given you anything in return,” she points out. Which is true. They’ve exchanged plenty of things before, but she’s never given him anything for his umbrella and jacket.

“You’ve given me more than I can give back.”

“That’s so cheesy,” she mumbles, keeping her eyes cast to the ground. It’s a little embarrassing, and maybe a little weird, that she’s kept his umbrella for so long but hasn’t used it until now.

The rain stops and Ladybug looks up. Chat has stepped closer so they’re sharing the umbrella.

“It’s true though,” he says, leaning a little closer. “I don’t know how to repay you.”

She shakes her head. “You don’t have to repay me.”

“What if I wanted to?” Their noses are almost touching and oh— 

“Depends on what you wanted to pay me with, I guess,” Ladybug murmurs. “What did you have in mind?”

Chat closes the distance between them and kisses her softly and slowly. Ladybug melts into his touch, raising a hand so she can cup his cheek. Chat pulls away and rests his forehead against hers.

“I was thinking,” he says slowly, “that kisses might work as payment.”

Ladybug laughs breathlessly. “I think that sounds perfect,” she says, before rising up on her toes and kissing him again and again.

**Author's Note:**

> don't mind me, just making up places in paris


End file.
